Feds change pot drink regulations, allowing Canadians to buy more beverages at once

Cannabis companies and advocacy groups are pushing Health Canada to change regulations curtailing the sale of pot-infused beverages, while allowing customers to buy larger quantities of more potent products like vape cartridges and oils. Various cannabis drinks are seen in Toronto, Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Giordano Ciampini 

Tara Deschamp – The Canadian Press – Dec 9, 2022

OTTAWA – 

The federal government has approved a change in how the cannabis content of beverages is calculated, pushing the number of standard-sized, canned pot drinks that can be bought at once from five to 48.

The change announced Friday and effective immediately makes one gram of dried cannabis equivalent to 570 grams of a pot drink, an increase from the 70 grams of a pot drink the government currently equates to one gram of dried cannabis.

One gram of dried cannabis is also now equivalent to 70 grams of non-solids containing cannabis like oils.

The shift in equivalency is important because the Cannabis Act, the federal legislation which paved the way for pot’s legalization, allows Canadians to carry no more than 30 g of dried cannabis or its “equivalent” at one time.

Single cannabis beverages sold in Canada could also not contain more than 10 mg of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), pot’s psychoactive component.

That left Canadians unable to buy more than five 355mL cans of pot drinks with 2 or 2.5 mg of THC in each, but able to purchase nine beverages that come in 222 mL cans with 10 mg of THC at once or even 100 bottles of cannabis oil spray containing 50,000 mg of THC.

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